Hip to Be Cubed?

The cutest holiday gift I received this year—or the most depressing, depending on how you look at it—was a toy office set called The Cubes.

It's a biting commentary on cubicle culture that could come straight out of Dilbert or Office Space. Four different minature plastic Cubes, made by Accoutrements, are available from Archie McPhee, the Seattle-based kitsch emporium. Each comes with a suitably expressionless worker drone less than three inches tall and everything needed to build a characteristically dreary corporate cubicle: three and a half gray walls, a desk, chair, computer, file cabinet, phone, and in/out box. To add that personalized touch, the sets also include small-but-sappy motivational posters and typically tacky office signs ("Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.") Mix-and-match job-title stickers allow you to create a "convoluted and meaningless position for your employee," like Senior Purchasing Specialist, for example, or Assistant Customer Service Processor.

You can also expand your mini-office by adding other interlocking cubes, or by bringing in a motivational speaker, sensitivity consultant, brown-clad package-delivery person, or corporate protester. A break room and a copy center are now available as well.